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JOHANNESBURG - The JSE continued its morning trajectory at midday on Wednesday as gold shares reduced early morning lossesâ€š and industrials were slightly up in lacklustre trade.

Platinum shares rebounded on a flat platinum price of $976.11 an ounce.

Spot gold was 0.55% off at $1â€š282.14 an ounce. The rand was at R13.3086 against the dollar from R13.2952.

Retailers were firmer on the positive consumer inflation dataâ€š which showed that the consumer price index dropped to an annual 6.1% in March from 6.3% in February.

READ: Copper and zinc likely to drag JSE down on Wednesday

Lower inflation improves the likelihood of an interest-rate cut in the second half of the yearâ€š thereby boosting disposable income for consumers and thus supporting retailers. Howeverâ€š the Reserve Bank is likely also to keep a close eye on the randâ€š among other factorsâ€š before making an interest-rate decision.

The market showed little reaction to views expressed by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba that he would seek to avoid a ratings downgrade by Moodyâ€™sâ€š on the Treasuryâ€™s planned investment road show in the US.

Moodyâ€™s has not yet made an announcement on SAâ€™s sovereign creditâ€š following the downgrades to junk status by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch earlier in April. Analysts said the effect of the downgrades may be less onerous than previously thought. â€śThe actual difference in absolute credit risk was marginalâ€šâ€ť Citadel chief investment officer George Herman said.

He said that defaults by countries in the top bracket of the noninvestment gradeâ€š such as SAâ€š were only marginally higher than those on the lowest bracket of investment grade. â€śFalling out of the investment grade universe was costlyâ€š but was also not the end of the world.â€ť

At 12.14pm the all share was 0.27% up at 52â€š813.60 points and the blue-chip top 40 added 0.30%. Platinums were up 1.85%. Food and drug retailers rose 0.94% and banks firmed 0.79%. Industrials added 0.12%. The gold index dropped 1.62%.

Anglo American lifted 0.79% to R191.30.

Sibanye shed 4.23% to R31.90.

Pick n Pay was 3.52% lower at R62.26 following the release of annual results in the morningâ€š which showed aftertax profit growth of 17% to R1.2bn.